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Drawing Buildings

Hi, I wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction. I'm looking for tutorials or references to drawing 3d towns and buildings. Or perhaps a reference to the different styles and ways to make the towns pop off the map. I have found lots of images to use as a reference but would be nice to see some instruction on scaling and positioning all the different elements also.

Hello. It would help if you could post links to some examples of what you're after, like an example of the style you hope to create. Are you just looking to make little graphics to represent towns on a regional map, or are you wanting to do an isometric expansion of a building, or perhaps some other thing?

Sometimes I use 3D for creating buildings, but generally only for complex structures that aren't easily done in vector or image editing. Probably use Sketchup. Creating buildings is rather simple and straight forward.

However, most buildings are pretty simple to do. Attached is an illustration of the steps I do to create photo-realistic buildings that "pop out" in my maps using Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 9 (a vector drawing application), but the technique can be done in most vector or image editing applications, including Photoshop/GIMP/Illustrator/Inkscape.

Ah, an isometric view map and structures, well had you said that, I'd understood better. I do those as well, and though I would create the base in 3D, I often use the 3D created element as a reference to do a hand-drawn version, that I finish and place in my maps. I don't do many isometric maps, I have done a half dozen or so - and will probably do more eventually.

I just did an isometric exterior for the last Lite Challenge which you can check out. It shows what I started with. Like Gamerprinter says, I used a simple shape outline first (and also built a model in SketchUp for reference) and then started filling stuff in. I'm going to continue working on the buildings here but that will mostly just be painting in Photoshop. I do have an isometric grid set up for Adobe Illustrator and if you want that I will figure out a way to share it with you.

I only posted links to my stuff because I know for sure where they are. You can also search the site for "isometric" or use a Google site search (isometric site: cartographersguild.com) which will get you to a whole bunch of information and ideas on isometric mapping from the guild members who are really good at it.

Here's one of my isometric maps, I used for a Map Challenge here at the guild. The first image shows some 3D buildings placed in a hand-drawn area map

Thanks so much! These are really great now I have a much better understanding of where to start and it does not seem such a daunting task! Can you guys recommend a good program for making 3d building shapes in that is suited to a beginner in 3d. I've lots of experience in photoshop and illustrator but I have never worked with any 3d programs so perhaps one without a very steep learning curve!